2012 Cabernet Sauvignon 6.0

TASTING NOTES

On the palate, this bright and reflective ruby-colored wine is vivid and textured with considerable weight, revealing cherries and French vanilla with hints of graphite and cedar followed by smoky dark chocolate and lavender. A core block of vines, more than twenty years old, produced the grapes. This fantastically vibrant and concentrated wine promises to richly reward a few years of aging because of the superlative quality of the fruit and underlying and tannins. Indeed, upon release this wine is at the beginning of a 25+ year adventure during which its full promise will undoubtedly be revealed.

RATINGS

Stephen Tanzer, Vinous (April 2017) - 93 points
"Deep ruby. Very closed, grapey scents of primary dark fruits and licorice, with some liqueur-like high tones emerging with air. Densely packed, chewy wine with a berry liqueur sweetness and plenty of early personality. This very large-scaled, spicy, structured wine finishes very long and vibrant, with substantial tannins that are a bit tough in the early going."

Antonio Galloni, Vinous (Dec. 2014) - 93+ points
"The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is striking. Silky, nuanced and exceptionally polished, the 2012 possesses notable purity, with gorgeous aromatics and notable energy. Hints of anise, savory herbs, iron, smoke and tobacco develop in the glass, but the flavors remain quite primary. This is a rare 2012 that is going to need time to fully come together."

Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate (Oct. 2014) - 94 points
"The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, a blend of 94.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5.5% Petit Verdot, exhibits sweet plum, blackcurrant, blackberry, burning ember and loamy soil notes, and a full-bodied, opulent, deep, chewy mouthfeel. Aged 20 months in 60% new French oak, it is a big, lusty, full-bodied, muscular Cabernet Sauvignon that is more approachable than most Seavey wines are at this age. It needs 3-5 years of cellaring and should keep for 25+ years."
Antonio Galloni, Vinous (Dec. 2014) - 93+ points
"The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is striking. Silky, nuanced and exceptionally polished, the 2012 possesses notable purity, with gorgeous aromatics and notable energy. Hints of anise, savory herbs, iron, smoke and tobacco develop in the glass, but the flavors remain quite primary. This is a rare 2012 that is going to need time to fully come together."

VINEYARD NOTES

Seavey's 23rd vintage of estate-produced Cabernet, the 2012, was made from grapes that came from vines grown on steep hillside blocks of the vineyard that we have been farming for 35 years. The 2012 growing season was nearly perfect, marked by mild and stable weather between May and October which created an ideal climate for grapevine growth and development followed by even and slow ripening. We carefully handpicked our hillside blocks in rolling lots at their optimum ripeness and then separately vinified and aged the different lots.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Winemaking followed classic Bordeaux methods with whole-berry fermentation. In the cool of the early morning harvest, grapes were promptly de-stemmed and the uncrushed berries were gently transferred into fermentation tanks. In order to carefully manage the tannins and resulting wine texture, the grapes were neither crushed nor run through a pump. Following fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels (60% new) for 20 months before bottling in June 2014.